Chapter 18

THE THIEF

THE THIEF

BY FEODOR MIKAILOVITCH DOSTOIEVSKI

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Dostoievski, the son of a Moscow physician, was born in 1821 and died of consumption in 1881. For his connection with a revolutionary plot he was condemned to death in 1849, but on the scaffold his sentence was commuted to hard labor in Siberia. While his writings are not distinguished in form or style, the author’s intimate knowledge of the life he portrays and his wonderful power of analysis unite to create an impression of life that is all the more poignant because it is so scientifically accurate.The degree of relationship between “The Thief” and Gogol’s “The Cloak” will be readily perceived.“Crime and Punishment” is the only one of the few of his books translated into English that is at all well known to American readers.

Dostoievski, the son of a Moscow physician, was born in 1821 and died of consumption in 1881. For his connection with a revolutionary plot he was condemned to death in 1849, but on the scaffold his sentence was commuted to hard labor in Siberia. While his writings are not distinguished in form or style, the author’s intimate knowledge of the life he portrays and his wonderful power of analysis unite to create an impression of life that is all the more poignant because it is so scientifically accurate.

The degree of relationship between “The Thief” and Gogol’s “The Cloak” will be readily perceived.

“Crime and Punishment” is the only one of the few of his books translated into English that is at all well known to American readers.

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